What About Our Inheritance? (Romans 8:18-25)

One of the important ways to read the Bible is to do so with a willingness to accept what it says even if it seems to go against what we have been taught about life, especially with regard to what has been regarded as spirituality. It is the case that our religious background has tended to downplay the importance of the physical and instead to highlight inner aspects of our responses to God. Yet to ignore the physical is to ignore some essential areas of the Christian life. For example, when we read the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25, do we realise that the criteria for the judgement assessment are connected to physical activities such as feeding the hungry, visiting the needy and identifying with the persecuted (those in prison)? The assessment is not about our aspiration or our intentions with regard to such matters, but about our actions concerning them. Of course, those actions flow out of an inner change, but they are one essential set of proofs of an inner change displayed physically.

It is obvious that the verses we are going to consider from Romans 8 are connected to things physical as well as to inner responses. Paul here refers to the physical creation, what happened to it in the past and what will happen to it in the future. He writes about what is going to happen to the bodies of Christians and how those future physical experiences should affect us now. And he also mentions how the Holy Spirit is involved in our current responses to future physical changes in the universe and in ourselves.

In verse 17, Paul reminded his readers that those who are going to receive the inheritance of glory usually suffer in this life because of their faith – they suffer with Jesus, or to put another way he suffers with them. Paul himself had discovered this involvement of Jesus on the Damascus Road when he was asked why he was persecuting Jesus when he crushed the followers of Jesus. The sufferings of the early Christians were great and if we add the sufferings connected to pain and disease we may be surprised that Paul says they are not worth comparing with the glory that God’s people will see. Therefore, instead of comparing them, he says what the location of glory will be like. So he describes the inheritance of believers.

The inheritance of God’s people

Paul reminds the believers that the inheritance they will have is the creation. By creation, he probably means the earth although he could mean the entire universe. I suspect he refers to the earth because he refers back to what happened at the beginning when God made the heavens and the earth. It was then that God gave the earth to Adam as his inheritance and part of the work of Jesus is to recover that inheritance for his people.

Maybe we are surprised by Paul’s words here about the creation. Every day we see the beauty of the earth, the splendour of the heavens, the magnificence of the mountains, the amazing intricacy of the flowers, and the majesty of the sea. Yet we should not be surprised at his description because we also know that the creation has many ugly aspects. We are aware of the cruelty of the animal world. And we read daily of natural disasters, such as earthquakes, tornadoes and famines, happening in other parts of the world. In the created order there exists a great contradiction between what is good and what is evil. Clearly, this is not the world over which God pronounced, at the beginning, that all was very good (Gen. 1:31).

So what does Paul say about the creation? First, he says that the creation wants to see the revealing of the sons of God. Literally he says that the creation is stretching out its neck. Paul is personalising the creation here. At present, the creation cannot see the glory of the sons of God because they are suffering. But one day, when the sons of God are revealed in glory the creation’s longing will be realised.

Second, Paul says that the creation is currently experiencing futility because of the curse God has placed on it because of the sin of Adam (which was also our sin). In other words, all the inherent resources within the creation end without achieving what could be done. We have seen fierce storms recently. Storms are the consequence of the curse placed on creation at the beginning. Imagine what creation would be like if all that energy seen in the storms was used for more profitable purposes.

Third, Paul says that the creation in some sense is enslaved to its current condition. Whatever else may be said about slavery it is obvious that it is unpleasant and demeaning. The creation is not what it was intended to be when God first made it. It was made in such a way that Adam could discover features of it which would have enabled him to live as the son of God made in his image.

Fourth, Paul says that creation is groaning. Yet it is an optimistic groaning because it is likened to the groans connected to childbirth. This optimism is based on how God enslaved it at the beginning. It was an enslavement designed to end when the heirs, to whom it was given, are ready to receive it. They will be ready at the resurrection when they will be glorified in body as well as in soul.

We can summarise Paul’s description by saying that the groaning of creation is comprehensive (it is all affected), continuous (it has never stopped since the calamity in Eden), combined (Paul says that it is all groaning together, much like a concert of musicians, except that this concert is all performed in a very minor key), but it will have a conclusion (when the sons of God are revealed).

Paul here gives an unexpected view of God’s creation because we are used to assuming that it always was as it currently is. It is better for us to look at it through the lens of scripture, and it reminds us that we are a fallen race living on a planet currently marked by futility. But Paul also gives us an unending view of creation because he uses words that encourage us to look as far as we wish into the future and see a liberated creation suitable as the dwelling place of the heirs of God.

Of course, this view of the future is not unique to Paul. In Acts 3:24 Peter informs his hearers regarding Jesus that he will be in heaven ‘until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago’. Peter also describes Christians as those who ‘are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells’ (2 Pet. 3:13).

The groaning of the heirs (vv. 23-25)

Paul then mentions a second groaning that is connected to the groaning of creation and that is the groaning of believers. As usual, Paul can say a lot in a few words, so we can unpack them briefly and see what we can discover about this groaning that should mark every Christian.

First, it is an optimistic groaning connected to hope. It is possible to have a negative groaning connected to failure or to the power of sin. But that is not the type of groaning Paul mentions here. Instead the groaning that Paul describes is a powerful longing for a better world in which the effects of sin will be gone. Every day we see numerous reasons why this inner aspiration should be strong. Sadly some Christians are more excited about the next development in their career or in the latest car or computer than they are about the coming world.

Second, we are waiting eagerly for the completion of our adoption, which is the final state of our bodies. Adoption begins when we believe in Jesus and becomes members of the family of God. It is obviously a status, but Paul’s reference here is a reminder that adoption is also an experience that includes transformation when Jesus returns. The experience is more than resurrection because Lazarus was resurrected without being transformed. On the day that Jesus returns all believers will be transformed into his likeness. This is a very important reason for having a biblical outlook that includes our bodies.

Third, this optimistic groaning is connected to having the firstfruits of the Spirit. The idea of firstfruits comes from the practice of presenting a sample of the future harvest to God in worship. Therefore, firstfruits points to a sample and to a greater amount. Christians receive the Spirit when they are converted, but they don’t receive everything that he wants them to have. He wants them to have more joy, more peace, more love that they can have in their present personal makeup even although they are regenerated. Having the Spirit as the firstfruits makes us look ahead to the experience of fullness that we will yet have on that wonderful future day when Jesus returns and blesses his people further.

Fourth, those who grasp the significance of this wonderful privilege are marked by patience in the sense that they can cope with the problems of the present because they know that they have a wonderful future. The glory of the inheritance and the guaranteed experience of transformation create a certainty of longing that takes them through life with eager expectation. It affects everything that they face in life and gives strength for it all. This attitude is not escapism; rather it is expectancy.

Some applications

One obvious application is what does this passage say about environmental concerns that are so central today. It goes without saying that we should care for our world as best as we can together. Nevertheless I would suggest that this passage informs us of two crucial aspects. First, we must take into account that there is a primary cause as well as several secondary causes for the current situation. The secondary causes include human mismanagement of the planet’s resources. Yet even if we get rid of the secondary causes, it is impossible for us to remove the primary cause which is that God has cursed the creation. Second, with regard to the deliverance of creation, we know that the final and complete recovery will take place when Jesus returns.

A second application is a reminder how we are to view the creation. When we see a majestic sight, before we get overwhelmed into rhapsody over its splendour, we should remind ourselves that it is not as magnificent as it could have been. What we are admiring is a fallen creation and we should ask ourselves, ‘What would it have been like if humans had not sinned?’ And when we are gardening, and those annoying weeds reappear, instead of getting grumpy at the weeds, we should remind ourselves why they exist. They are here because we rebelled against God.

A third application concerns the dignity of humans. We can deduce from Paul’s description that the destiny of creation is linked to the status of human beings, those who are in Christ, the sons of God whose bodies will be transformed at the second coming. Obviously there is a distinction between the human race and the other levels of creatures. Whatever liberation the creation will undergo when Jesus returns, it will not be at the level of what will happen to believers.

A fourth application is to consider what this great future restoration says about God. To begin with, we can note that he makes and fulfils great promises. There are many promises in the Bible regarding what will happen when Jesus returns and all of them will be performed. Moreover, we can note what this restoration says about his mercy. The effects, time-wise, of the curse on the earth have been long, but however long it will be it will not be as long as the period of restoration that will follow. The earth will be full of the glory of the Lord, and the prototype that Eden was will become a glorious reality.

A fifth application is that we should always remember who our fellow Christians are. They are the heirs of God and the joint heirs with Jesus. One day they are going to be glorified and enter into the amazing inheritance produced for them by the loving and wise omnipotence of Jesus. At this moment, they too have the firstfruits of the Spirit and they too have (or should have) the positive groanings for a better world. Our vision of a shared future should lead us to have a determination to interact with them in a Christ-like way.

A sixth application is that all the heirs will receive the inheritance together. No doubt we are familiar with how the eleventh chapter of Hebrews finishes. The writer, who has described the illustrious believers from the Old Testament period, comments that they cannot be made complete without us: ‘And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect’ (11:39). The number of people in the ‘us’ is not yet completed, but it will be on the day that Jesus returns. Then the believers from the twenty-first century BC will join the believers from the twenty-first century AD and enter the same inheritance. They are waiting for us, but we are not holding them back. Instead they too are looking forward to the united gathering of all the redeemed.

A final application is to ask what kind of person would choose to miss out on this wonderful experience. That is what those who reject the gospel of Jesus are doing. They will not share in the eternal inheritance. Instead they will endure forever the isolation of the blackness of darkness in a lost eternity. But such now can come and book their place in the inheritance by trusting in Jesus.